Problem Player, Did I handle it right?

Everyone has been through this. A player not playing up to their ability. Most of the time it is a player who doesn't think they are good enough to do something and doesn't make the effort. Little Miss K is different. First off she comes to first practice and declares that she is the best player on the team. After a few minutes she did amend it to the she is one of the best players. She does have ability but she is a drama queen. She told her mother that the other players aren't serious when the play and she wants to switch to another team ( this is a rec team). On defense she stands legs and arms crossed when we tell the girls to get softball ready. She will not listen to the coaches at all.
After sweet talking her through 9 games I had enough. After she came off the field after the top of the 1st I took her to the side and asked her when she was going to start to play? I have to pick 3 girls for an all-star game and with her attitude and her lack of hustles she wasn't going. She is the oldest girl on the team (10-12) and the other girls look to her to be a leader. I have 2 12yo, 2 11yo and the rest of the team is 10. She was demoralizing them. Told her that all the other players are playing the best they can, when is going to stop fooling around and play the best she can? Then I told her to get back on the bench and play. Her response, she quit the team!
A bad attitude spreads like cancer. In a way I feel bad if I hurt her feeling, but now I am glad she is gone. I feel I handled it right.

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark. - Michelangelo

I would have done the same, one bad attitude is all that is needed to spoil the team.

I had 2 girls on a rec-team that was like that, we went to the World Series and after wining 4 games and playing to get into the finials they decide they want to go shopping, they began to miss balls on purpose and strikeout on purpose and I could tell.

Our team worked hard to raise $3,000 to be there and they quit when we needed them and let the team down. More important, although they did not realize it at the time they let themselves down.

Six years later would they rather have the memory of shopping or maybe a World Series Trophy?

You did the right thing.
Had a similar experience this year with an All Star team.
2 girls had terrible attitudes. The first practice we are just warming up. I say out loud who are we waiting for? I then say out loud 2 girls who haven't arrived yet.One of the bad attitudes says, " I don't like her" The other coach spun around and asked me who said it. I told him I didn't know. First I didn't want to run a girl off before the first practice, second I am friends with her father. Mother not a fan.
I even told her Dad, thinking he would say something to straighten her out. She never got better in fact worse. She was rewarded with minimal playing time.

Boy did I regret keeping her around. Bad attitude with lack of hustle and little to no knowledge wears thin quick.She was like a cancer in the dugout.
Never again. She probably won't make the team if I coach again.

The only thing you did wrong was you waited until the 9th game. Like you said, a bad attitude spreads like a cancer, and rec seasons are too short to deal with stuff like that. The minute she said she wanted to play for another team, let her - call her bluff. SHe would have quit sooner rather than later.

In Rec. ball I have had limited success changing a “bad attitude”. The Player was probably assigned to your team and did not have a choice. If they are not endangering the other players they need to be given a lot of latitude. With that said I have for the most part given up on changing a Player’s bad attitude but still try and control it when they are with the Team.

As mentioned above your best chance is to try to jump on it early and stay on top of it. They end up taking a disproportional amount of your energy and time. Unfortunately this is 1 of the reason you get paid the big bucks.

When I was the AC on a team, there was a girl who was a phenomenal athlete. She probably had the most raw talent of any girl (including my DDs) I have ever seen. I haven't seen many girls at any level who were as good as her--she had a rocket launcher for an arm, great foot speed, and a good bat. She easily could have been a top notch D1 SS.

But, she was a real head case. The HC never addressed the problem, and let her do whatever she wanted because she was such a great player. During the game, the player was fine. But, without a game going on, she was awful. She was totally out of control.

Of course, she didn't get that way without the help of her parents. The whole family needed to have 24x7 counseling.

It was a little tragic to have a kid who could have easily been a D1 star at a major softball program, and yet was such a mess that she couldn't do anything.

Quincy is 100% right...get on it early, and if the kids won't or can't conform to the team rules, then they should be cut loose.

Last edited by sluggers; 07-08-2011 at 02:06 PM.

Ray

Every softball parent keeps a hockey mask and a butcher knife in their car...